watchdog

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Last week there was an article from the Daily News about my appointment by Mayor Myron Lowery to the Memphis Pension Board. My appointment was approved barely by the subcommittee on a 3 to 2 vote (Shea, Chairman, Strickland and Hedgepeth FOR, Fulliove and Collins, AGAINST). (I have attached an article from the Daily News about the vote).

The favorable subcommittee vote had to be approved or denied by the Memphis City Council at a subsequent meeting on September 15th. I was under no illusions that the approval would be easy as there is a hard core of Herenton supporters on the City Council who are against anything that might upset the current status and course of City Government and their control of that course.

My agreement to serve was based on my belief that all transactions in Government should be transparent. When asked to speak before the City Council I pointed this out and pointed out that I had proposed a change in the City Charter (during the Charter Commission hearings) that would have required all significant contract and financial transactions be immediately posted on the City Website. Had this been approved, then the Elbert Jefferson payments to Robert Spence would have been revealed in time to do something about it. I also pointed out that I would be the one public member on the board and would have no power to change anything and that only the City Council could change pension plan provisions. I did say that I thought that the pension system should be changed for future employees to a defined contribution plan (like for profit companies and employees) but not for existing public employees.

I was opposed by two union representatives who said that my presence on the pension board would hurt employee morale. I also was opposed by Barbara Swearengen Ware who quoted from my website about revelations that I had uncovered by open records requests. In general I was depicted as an all around horrible person and I requested the time to leave early so I could go home and continue beating my wife.

In the end I was approved on a 6 to 5 vote and as I left the chamber, I was called back and told that I was defeated because they claimed that I needed seven votes to pass (according to Allan Wade, the City Council attorney). I have been told that that standard is not true for appointments but the matter is still under discussion.

I want to thank those on the Council who supposed me and my call for transparency in government. I also want to thank Mayor Myron Lowery for having the courage to appointment me and to call for transparency in all government affairs and for an end to the black/white racial divide. There is, however, a hard core group on the City Council who are determined to block any real reforms.

Regardless of what happens, I will continue to call for transparency in government and I ask for your support in this effort. I have some good news and plans for the future which I will be communicating to you soon. Thanks for your past support and encouragement.



Click here to see a recent article about my aborted appointment to the pension board

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

LOCAL HOUSING SCAM ARTISTS INDICTED

I recently published an article about a local housing scam, flipping one house three times in several years and making over $600,000 on the deals. I asked why the Commercial Appeal had not published any detailed news of this. I sent the information on to the authorities for investigation and hopefully prosecution. Well, these scam artists have finally been indicted. (See the indictments below and a national article on housing scams, especially Memphis).

Here is the article that I published before the recent indictments.

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT? LOCALS FLIP JUST ONE PROPERTY THREE TIMES AND MAKE OFF WITH $684,000

Last week there was an interesting article in the CA concerning fraudulent appraisals of properties. The lead conspirator was not named at that time. The appraiser would take low priced properties, get an inflated appraisal, and then through a series of transactions,Ā the property was sold and mortgagedĀ and the difference was pocketed. In many cases, Fannie and Freddie or some bank and eventually the taxpayers would end up eating the difference between what the parties paid for the property and the amount of the inflated mortgage. These people would flip the same properties three and four times in the period of a few years.

There are hundreds of these type transactions listed locally in Shelby County and DeSoto County and I have shown some listed in the attached pdf files. However the one that stands out is at 744 Melrose. Mykisha Williams bought the property in April 2004 for $145,000 and sold it in May for $385,00000 ($240,00000 profit). Then in January 2005 Gloria Buntyn bought the property for $170,000 and in February sold it to Mykisha Williams for $385,000. ($215,000 profit). Then in February 2006 Kieth Threatt bought the property for $190,000 and in May 2006 sold the property for $419,000 to Sanchez Richmond ($229,000 profit). Total profit $684,000 less a few expenses.

This is a good local example of what happens to large government programs where there are people just waiting to scam the system. We are talking hundreds of millions of dollars here and this is just in Shelby County Tennessee and Desoto County Mississippi. This is a local example of how this current economic crisis happened and who is responsible, namely scam artists and politicians buying votes. Are you listening Barney and Chris?

I have listed below just three pieces of local property. There are many more and I hope that the FBI is investigating these transactions.

Basically the scheme illustrated by the attached pages of transactions from Tom Leatherwood's site shows properties at 144 Person, 395 Edith and 744 Melrose. The scheme goes like this.

A foreclosed property is bought for a low price. The buyer then sells the property a few months later to an associate for three to four times the purchase price. An inflated mortgage is obtained and sold to Federal National Mortgage Association or a bank. Then later, the property is foreclosed after no payments are made on the mortgage. Then, unbelievably, the same cycle happens again to the same property just a few months later. Another example is shown below.

144 Person: Federal National Mortgage Association sells property to Washington Mutual Bank for $7500. The same day, Washington Mutual sells the property to Mykisha Williams for $7500. A little over a month later, Mykisha Williams sells the property to Melanie Wilkes for $60000. The same day Melanie Wilkes gets a 90% mortgage from Argent Mortgage for $54000. Argent Mortgage must have unloaded the mortgage to Wells Fargo Bank as they ended up buying it on the courthouse steps for $50000 on December 2005. Then in June 2006 Wells Fargo sells it to Keith Threatt for $18000 and in October 2006 Keith Threatt sells the property to Onitsha Paige for $59000 and Onitsha gets a mortgage for $50150. Unbelivably a third flip is in the process.

Look at the other two sheets showing 744 Melrose and 395 Edith.

I think you get the idea. I have also attached a list of transactions from Tom Leatherwood's site for Mykisha Williams and Southern California REO LLC. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of such deals in the records. Why is this happening? Is there no oversight? Why is no action being taken? Why is the paper concentrating on $5 payments for favors in the County Clerk's office when here it is obvious that millions are being lost.

Some of my friends say the government has only the best of intentions. Just look at the results and guess who gets to pay the bill for each of these transaction. THE TAXPAYERS AS USUAL TAKE A BATH AND THE GOVERNMENT SHRUGS OFF SUCH DEALS AS ISOLATED INCIDENTS.

Well, take a look at the article on the link below. The title is "5 Indicted and 1 guilty plea in Tennessee flipping fraud allegations"


http://www.mortgagefraud.org/journal/2009/8/20/5-indicted-and-1-guilty-plea-in-tennessee-flipping-fraud-all.html

This is going on all over the country and this is not the only local frauds. Thanks to Barney Frank, other DC politicians and Freddie and Fannie, we are seeing billions in fraud and they are only indicting a small fraction of the crooks. This is your Congress at work.

I have attached the indictments. They make interesting reading.

Click here to read one of the indictments


Click here to read one of the indictments